A man with a wooden leg carrying arms and legs in a basket; representing the relation between the whole and its parts in Aristotelian logic. Engraving by L. Gaultier, ca. 1613.

  • Gaultier, Léonard, 1561-1641.
Date:
[1610?]
Reference:
571261i
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Description

One of the mnemonic visualizations of Aristotelian philosophy published for students in the 17th century: in this one, "L'accident (terme corrélatif de substance) est figuré par un estropié portant dans une besace des debris de bras et de jambes, avec cette légende significative: partes physicae et integrantes reductive ad praedicamenta referuntur." (De Wulf, op. cit., p. 64). The reference may be to Aristotle's Topica, book V, in which there is discussion of the question of whether man can be described as a biped even if individual men do not have two feet. The prints were published "ad mentis illustrationem, tum ad morum informationem, tum ad oculorum recreationem" (for the enlightenment of the mind, for the education of character, and and for the recreation of the eyes) (Kaiser, op. cit. p. 118)

Publication/Creation

[Paris] : [publisher not identified], [1610?]

Physical description

1 print : engraving ; image 8.7 x 9.9 cm

Lettering

Partes physicae et integrales reductive ad praedicamenta referuntur. L. Gaultier incidit. ...

References note

M. De Wulf, 'Arnold Geulincx et le procès de la philosophie aristotelicienne au XVII siècle', Revue néoclassique de philosophie, 1910, 17 (65): 53-66
Jean-Baptiste Kaiser, 'Martin Meurisse O.F.M., évêque de Madaure, suffragant de Metz. 1584-1644', Annuaire de la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de la Lorraine, 1923, 32: 1-119 (pp. 3 and 96)
R.A. Weigert, Inventaire du fonds français: graveurs du XVIIe siècle, tome IV, Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1961, possibly part of no. 113 (p. 433) "Grande pièce de deux feuilles remplies de figures emblématiques et hiéroglyphiques, par rapport à la physique et tout ce qui en dépend, gravé en 1615. L'invention en est de Frère Martin Meurisse -- Mariette, Notes mss., t. III, fol. 248" or nos. 118-120 (p. 434) "Trois pièces emblématiques", no. 121 "Pièce emblématique" or no. 122 "Allégorie"
Malcolm Jones, 'The English broadside print c. 1550-c. 1650', in Michael Hattaway (ed.), A new companion to English Renaissance literature and culture, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, vol. 1, pp. 478-526 (pp. 512, 524)

Reference

Wellcome Collection 571261i

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